Thus did Oliver Stewart epitomize the greatest of Frank Barnwell's aircraft designs of the 1914-18 war. His sentiments were amply confirmed and re-echoed by every contemporary pilot or observer who wrote about this aircraft in which they flew and fought. A few modernists, who knew it not in its time of battle, have been known to grumble about its relatively heavy lateral control, but such criticism is irrelevant: what mattered in 1917-18 were all the qualities that combined to make the Bristol Fighter the outstanding weapon that it was.
Not that it was conceived whole and perfect. Rather did it evolve by several stages from a design by Frank Barnwell for a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft intended to meet an RFC requirement of autumn 1915 for such a type capable of defending itself. This implied speed, manoeuvrability and effective defensive armament superior to anything produced or carried by any aircraft then in RFC service. The kind of capability that was being demanded in turn implied the use of a more powerful aero-engine than any available at that time.
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